


Some Dogs Bite

by sunshinedaisies



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: But chuck is like 7/8, But just fyi, I'll probably never say that explicitly in the work, M/M, early 2003/2004 era, everyone is about 18/19, minho and Newt will develop a relationship... in the later chapters, some more characters may pop up, teresa is much older, the rating might be changed later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-24 21:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4936315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinedaisies/pseuds/sunshinedaisies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the movie of the same name, an AU where Thomas and Chuck are orphaned after their parents die in an accident, and are separated from each other through the flawed system of adoption and foster care. Thomas runs away as soon as he has enough money saved to find Chuck. Along the way, he meets a variety of people that either want to help him or hinder him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. before

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is really more of a set up chapter. It will explain a little bit of what's happened to Thomas and chuck. The other characters will be introduced slowly throughout the whole thing. But once they are, I promise they'll be very important!!
> 
> I hope you guys liked it! I put up this first chapter because I wanted to do it before I lost all motivation. I have a few chapters written already and I'll try to update weekly, but I go through a lot of editing. Reviews are always good for becoming a better writer!
> 
> (I made minor edits to this chapter on Oct 7, 2015. But only because I realized I made some minor math errors. I wrote previously that after two years and five months, Thomas turned 18. A few paragraphs before, he'd said that he was already 16. So it's likely that his birthday was either very close or had already happened, and that being the case, he would've been a few months older than 18 already and couldn't have just turned 18. Sorry it's really minor you can ignore this whole thing if you want haha)

He's sitting on the roof outside of his window, thinking about how cliche he must look. It's not his fault he got adopted by an upper-middle class suburban couple. His thoughts sour back to the day they adopted him three years ago. 

"Why do you even want to adopt me?" He asked. "I'm turning 16. I'm already old. In three years, I can leave and I will." They didn't answer him.

"You only want to adopt me because she can't have her own babies. I'm just a last option to you." He said it with every ounce of malice he could muster.

"That's not true," the woman said quietly. Her husband put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 

"Why won't you take my brother?" Saying it out loud made it seem more definitive, like he had to accept that he wouldn't have Chuck. 

"We can only afford one child," the man said. "But we want to adopt you because we know that teenagers rarely get adopted." 

"So you're pitying me." He scowled at them. 

"I'm sorry," the woman spoke again, seemingly recovered from Thomas's hurtful words. "We just want to give you a better life." She reached out to him then. To hold his hand maybe. But he had snatched his hand away and stood up. 

He remembered that he started screaming at them then. "A better life would be with my brother! A better life would be a system where they wouldn't separate us! A better life would be one where our parents are still alive!" He remembered crying and running out of the room. He remembered opening the door to the kids rooms and hugging Chuck. He remembered waking him up with hot tears and muttered apologies. He cried and cried till they found him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry Chuck, I'm so sorry. I won't leave you. I'll always find you. I'm so sorry." 

Chuck had put on a brave face. "I know," he'd said. "I know you won't leave me." But the tears ran down his face too. 

Then when they found him, and forced Chuck from his arms, he remembered the promise he made. 

"I'll come back for you! Remember me, Chuck! I'll find you again!" Someone had to hold Chuck back. He cried and screamed. Chucking yelling his name was the last thing Thomas hear him say. 

He was in his new "parents" house in three hours. 

Thomas sighed at the memory. His heart ached.


	2. Harriet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, the story starts to progress a but more. Thomas meets someone interesting. He also reveals some information about Chuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long. My confidence plummeted because of external factors and I had the urge to rewrite the whole chapter. And I took five midterms in three days so I was very stressed, unfortunately. But we're all good now! I hope you guys like it!

He heard the train horn before he saw it. It was about a mile away. Thomas packed up the book he was reading and tucked it into a pocket of his backpack. All in all, what he had in his bag was cash, extra clothes, food and a water jug, a flashlight, a utility knife, pepper spray, and a few other things to keep him comfortable enough on the road. The train was grey on the outside, with a dart of blue that outlined the name of the train. 

Thomas had not opted to buy anything beyond coach class. Since he was trying to make what money he had go as long as possible, he didn't bother to buy a room. As such, he searched for an open seat. There were more people on the train than he expected, but he soon found a table seat with a black woman doing paper work at the table. 

"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?" He asked. 

"Please, go ahead," she moved some of her papers around and he sat in the seat diagonally from her. 

She went back to her work and for the next two hours she said nothing. She didn't even seem to notice that he was there. Her papers featured pictures of furniture, some of them look like blueprints of houses, one paper held carpet swatches. He finished three more chapters of his book. 

"I loved that book," she said. "Sorcerer's Stone. Did you know they call it 'the Philosopher's Stone in England?" He shook his head. "Apparently Philosopher was too complicated of a word for us simple Americans." 

"That's interesting," he said after a long pause. He wasn't sure how to properly respond to her. 

"You don't talk a lot do you?" 

"I guess so," he shrugged. 

"I do. I talk a lot. You'll have to get used to it if you want to sit with me." Once she saw that he wasn't responding, she rustled for something in her bag. Eventually she pulled out a a large Tupperware.

"Fried rice? It's 3 o'clock. I forgot about lunch." He tried to deny her at first, but then she pushed a paper plate, a plastic spoon, a few pieces of fried shrimp in front of him. She'd cleared away her papers and they had lunch. 

"So what do you do?" He asked. He was trying to make polite conversation with the woman that had very kindly shared her food with him. 

"I'm an interior designer," she said proudly. "I'm traveling back up to Washington DC to my office. What about you? Where are you headed?" 

"Delaware. Visiting a friend. Doesn't being an interior designer pay a lot though?" 

"Yeah," she said. 

"How come you're taking the train? Don't you have a car?" She stopped eating, seemed to remember something. 

"I don't like driving," she said before she continued eating.

"Oh," he didn't want to say anything else. She looked rather sad. But the expression soon faded. 

"I was in a car accident when I was little. Lost my mom. But it's ok. She's in a better place now. And my dad, well he's happier now. Interior designing does pay a lot. I got him a boat. He really loves to go fishing in the open water. But I'm always scared for him when there's a storm." 

"That sounds really nice." He remembered the time his parents took him and Chuck fishing. Chuck cried when the fish died and they hadn't had fish since. He smiled sadly at the thought and couldn't help his eyes watering. He looked away from her and hoped she didn't notice. 

"Hey are you ok?" She noticed. 

"Yeah I'm fine, I just- I'm fine." 

"What's wrong? Be honest with me. It's not good to keep negative feelings in." He wondered how much he could tell her and decided that he'd go with as little as possible. 

"What you said, it reminded me about my parents. They died in a car accident a few years ago." 

"Aw sweetie I'm sorry. I know what it's like. Here look, have some chocolate. Chocolate always makes me feel better. Just like Remus Lupin said in Prisoner of Azkaban. It makes you feel better." He accepted it, tried to appear as grateful as possible for all the kindness she'd shared with him. 

"I haven't watched the movie yet," he admitted. 

"Really? It's amazing." 

They talked like this for hours. Until at 9 pm she said she was going to her room. He decided that he liked her. Harriet was her name. She was nice and a very open person. He learned that she was 26, that she was traveling from England to take care of a client in Florida, that she was visiting the office they had in Washington DC, and that she preferred trains to airplanes. She liked seeing the country, she said. She told him about how she bought a house in the country in England but didn't get to use it often, though she'd made it a point to take her dad every winter because he always wanted to live in house by the sea. Interior designing involved a lot of traveling, especially in her company. 

He slept at the table, using his backpack as a makeshift pillow. The train ride from Greenville, South Carolina to Newark, Delaware would take about 12 hours and he would have to transfer trains once he got to Washington DC. From Newark, it was only two hour bus ride to New Castle. That was where Chuck lived. 

Social services had prevented him from ever knowing where he lived. Because of his "extreme familial attachments," they worried that he would run away and try to find him. Well, they were right. Thomas had only found out because the social service lady, Mrs. Paige, had told him when Chuck got adopted. It was a few months after he did. Apparently, she handled both of their cases. And while she was talking to Mr. And Mrs. Edimer about his progress in school, he searched through her bag. He hoped to find something, anything, about Chuck. A case file, an address, a note. He found a letter, obviously written by a 7 or 8 year old, and it was addressed to him. 

He stole the letter- he suspected that she didn't actually plan on giving it to him. He was right. As she left, she gave no hint that she intended to give to him. Later that night he read it to himself. 

"Dear Thomas, 

This is my 7 th letter. The lady says that you are too busy with school to reply to me. And also because she says you don't want to hurt my feelings. She said something about how keeping in contact with you would just make me sadder because soon you will be going to college and really will not be able to reply to me. 

I think she is a liar. I don't she is even giving you any of my letters because when I ask her if you got it she always looks away and says 'yes and he likes what you wrote very much but he is too busy with school to reply and hopes you understand that he still loves you." 

I know she is lying because in my other letter, all I wrote was P-O-O-P and she would not say you liked it if you read that and that means she also does not read these letters which is good. I hope you get this Thomas. I will write this letter everytime she visits me and ask her to give it to you. 

I hope that if you find this you know I love you and I don't believe her and I know you will find me. My address is in the back of this letter. 

I love you! Chuck." 

After that, he made it a habit of checking her purse for any messages from Chuck. Often, he wouldn't find any. But there would be days when he would find one and it would have the same exact message in it. The envelopes were always only sealed at the point. Chuck had made it so that it would not be obvious if someone had opened it. He also included a false letter in the same style that his previous letters to Thomas had been. He instructed Thomas to take out the real letter and keep the false letter in, and to put the envelope back in the bag in case she got suspicious and opened it. Chuck was a very smart kid, Thomas realized. And every bit as determined to get them back together as he was. 

When she stopped coming to check on him, he waited a few months before he left. It was all because of Chuck genius idea that he even knew where to look for him. And now, he was only a day away. 

When he woke up, Harriet was sitting in front of him again. She had a few papers laid out. Less than yesterday. 

"Good morning sleepy head, we're almost in DC," she greeted him.

"Morning," he mumbled back. He slept well despite the awkward angle. 

They had time enough to eat breakfast before the conductor announced that they would be reaching the city soon. Once they arrived at the station, Harriet lingered to give him a hug. 

"I hope you find everything you're looking for Thomas." 

"Thanks, Harriet. I hope your work goes well." 

"Hey you know what? I've been thinking. You ever find yourself in England, or ever need a place to crash, you come find this. That's the house i was telling you about. The key is under a loose brick under a flower pot." She wrote an address on a slip of paper and clapped it in Thomas's hand. 

He tried to tell her that the gesture was kind, but very unnecessary, tried to thank her at least, but she shushed him. 

"I mean this," she emphasized. She gave him one more hug before bidding him goodbye. 

He tucked the paper into his wallet. Then he searched for the train he had to transfer to. After this, he was just one bus ride away from Chuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I'm trying to keep these updated on an weekly basis. Might become every two weeks. But as a little gift to your patience, I will say that we will be meeting newt and minho sometime, somewhere in the next few chapter (maybe somewhere in ch 3, or 4, or 5.... haha), sonewhere....
> 
> As always, thanks for reading guys!


End file.
